Transmenu powered by JoomlArt.com - Mambo Joomla Professional Templates Club

Who is my Caseworker? What can I expect my Caseworker to do for my family?

Your Caseworker is a trained, professional counselor who has met the minimum requirement of a Masters degree in counseling, psychology, social work, or a related field. He or she will contact you in order to arrange an initial visit, the purpose of which is to gather information and to assess your needs. Your Caseworker is your primary resource and contact at ECF. He or she will provide emotional counseling for you/your child and any immediate family members via phone or in the comfort of your home or hospital room. Additionally, he or she will continue to assess your needs and can provide related advocacy services and coordinate material and financial assistance as needed. Additionally, Caseworkers can provide bereavement counseling to families who have lost a child to cancer.

Who is my Regional Director and what do they do?

Your Caseworker will work with you to determine if there is a need for specific types of material assistance provided by ECF. If there is, that assistance will come from the Regional Center closest to your home. The Centers are managed by Regional Directors, and much of the work there is done by volunteers. A Regional Director or one of the volunteers may, from time to time, contact you for specific information or to arrange for delivery of food and gifts to your home. Your Regional Director and Caseworker contact each other frequently to help mitigate any additional stress for you.

I lost my child to pediatric cancer. Can I still call on ECF for emotional support until we all recover from the pain?

Absolutely. ECF’s Caseworkers are there to provide emotional support and to help you and your family cope with your loss. Should you and your family experience this devastating loss, you will not be abandoned by us. ECF can provide support for as long as you need us.

My son is doing much better, but his younger sister is now overly concerned about her health (remembering what her brother went through). Is there something you can do to help with her anxiety?

ECF’s Caseworkers can help any family member. Caseworkers have a lot of experience working not only with the child, but also with parents, siblings, grandparents, and other key people in the child’s life. And remember, all of ECF’s services are free.

My daughter just completed treatment for her brain tumor, and she’s concerned about kids gawking at her when she returns to school. Can ECF help?

This is just another way in which ECF’s professional Caseworkers can help your family. We can help your child work through some of his or her fears, and we can also speak with the teacher and other administrative faculty to provide them with information that will help make your child’s transition back to the classroom less traumatic. Please know that ECF will never contact anyone in this manner without your permission.

I understand from talking to other parents at the hospital that there may be other resources out there for my family. How can we find out more about them?

While ECF tries to help families in any way that we can, we cannot do everything. Your Caseworker has a list of up-to-date resources that can help you and your family deal with issues that are outside of ECF's scope. Upon request, your Caseworker will discuss these options with you and will even act as a liason with other organizations, so that you don’t have to take the time to do this.